Book View: Is it just me or...
 

Ok, I read about is, Book View is really gone. But, is it just me or is there a new way to get things done in the eBook creation pipeline to alleviate to pain caused by the elimination of a built-in book view?

I mean I used to frequently flip back and forth between HTML and book view to make minor corrections. I liked locating something visually, then switching to HTML and find my cursor at the right place to quickly modify the underlying HTML code or vice-versa.

How do you guys do it now? Personally, and no offense to whoever is behind the decision to remove the built-in book view, I think it is nonsense not to have the means to quickly switch back and forth between the page view and underlying HTML in any ePub editor.

Would it be possible for people to peruse/use one of the many existing threads on the subject rather than everyone creating a new thread devoted to lamenting the demise of Book View? The answers to "what do I do now?" have all been answered multiple times in multiple threads.

Personally, I think it's nuts that anyone would want to switch back and forth (quickly, slowly, or medium-ly) between page view and html view when you can have both displayed at the same time without switching at all. But hey... whatever floats your boat. Here's your options: 1) see if the new PageEdit will be able to suit your needs (read one of the threads about the upcoming new features before making up your mind), or 2) go back to an older version of Sigil that works the way you like and live happily ever after.

I am truly not sure if the people involved in posting these comments have ever even realized that Preview exists, or that Preview and CodeView are synced and can be both be accessed side by side with no toggling or clicking. This has to be the second or third such comment that seems to be unaware of Preview. I guess they never looked at the Views menu to enable or hide the many different windows/tools that Sigil provides.

When I installed the current version I made a point of removing all traces of the previous version including my preferences. The first time I started the new version there was no Preview window, which surprised me. I have no recollection of adding it from the View menu previously. I posted here asking if it couldn't be made visible in the initial/default startup and was told no.

I am also having trouble understanding the use mode that people feel was lost. If it was spellchecking visually, or search, or proofing, or checking links, inserting split markers, or making minor edits visually, PageEdit covers all of these. If it was copying and pasting directly from Word, we have added a more robust cleaning feature to PageEdit controlled by an environment variable to allow it to be used that way. We have added an easy External Launch Icon from Sigil (thank you for that idea Doitsu). And when the next version of PageEdit is released, we made it easy to navigate from one xhtml file to another by opening the content OPF file instead of just one file at a time.

If a user had a large screen or even two, they could have Sigil's CodeView and Preview side by side on one screen, with PageView and the Inspector to show the code itself open on the other screen.

What use case have we truly lost?

Yeah, in my case I have my 2nd monitor rotated in landscape mode so having Preview always open and docked on the right is the obvious setup.

I can't imagine either of us telling you that. :blink: It has long been my plan to make Preview open by default on new installations, but wouldn't do it until I figured out how to do so without Preview trying to hog the whole window on first launch. I solved that problem and implemented it in Sigil version 0.9.17. Starting with that version, Preview is tabbed with the Table of Contents widget in the right docking area by default on first launch (provided there is no preexisting Sigil.ini file to prevent it).

I'm also surprised at the number of people who blindly update to the very latest version Sigil without checking out the release notes, or checking to see how the newest version is being received by other users. I understand the regulars around here and the developers always running the latest version, but I would expect casual users (and even some hard-core users) to be a little more hesitant to chase the newest version all the time. Especially if they're unaware of the changes that are in the pipeline.

Yes, I do not understand that either. Especially with all of the discussion over the last couple of years and the clear pre-announcements, and quite concise and clear release notes.

Oh please. We're the same nutjobs who are rooting our android phones, hacking the firmware on the ereaders, etc., and always without ever checking beforehand. :p

And complaining that the rooting process bricked your device? ;)

I fully admit that there was a time I would have hacked my toaster if it had a processor in it. But I don't root for rooting's sake any more. I run completely stock firmware and utterly unrooted devices these days. Leaves much more time to enjoy using the device instead. And if updating my Arch Linux development system breaks something I need, I roll back to an earlier version and wait until an upstream fix that I can live with has been implemented.

Didn't brick it but things just weren't as nice. And I stupidly didn't back up the original firmware or whatever it's called on the phone. Learned my lesson.

Philippe:

Did you know that you can simulate book view by decoupling the PREVEW WINDOW (hit F10). Drag and drop the preview window over the html viewer, resize the window to take up all or part of the available space. Use F10 instead of F2 to toggle between views. A really simple fix to give you "BOOK VIEW" again.

Nice tip. But again ... what's the advantage to having Preview completely obscure Code View in the first place? Why not have both visible and see the changes to html rendered in Preview in real time? Without having to waste time flipping to and fro?